Tammy Kim (born January 16, 1971) is an American politician and nonprofit executive. She was a member of the Irvine City Council in California from 2020 to 2024. Kim was an elected member of the Central Committee for the Democratic Party in Orange County representing California's 73rd State Assembly district.
In February 2023, Kim announced that she would be running as a candidate for the 2024 Irvine mayoral election. she subsequently lost her race for Mayor to Larry Agran. Tammy Kim was charged with ten felonies and one misdemeanor by the Orange County District Attorney in May 2025 relating to residency discrepancies while Kim was on Council and attempting to run in a special election to get back onto city council.
Biography Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated with her family to the United States as an infant in 1971, eventually settling in Flint, Michigan where she spent her youth. Her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland right after her high school graduation and attended Michigan State University. Kim moved to Los Angeles in 1997 and then to Orange County in 2002. She settled in Irvine in 2005 with her son.
Career
Early career After moving to California in 1997, Kim spent the next several years working for companies including VMWare, EMC Corporation and CA Technologies, where she was VP of Global Talent Acquisition.
Nonprofit work In 2015, Kim founded the Korean American Center, an Irvine based nonprofit organization with a mission to help intergenerational Korean Americans connect with the greater community. In 2017, the Korean American Center began the process of merging with Korean Community Services, becoming one of the largest nonprofit organizations in Orange County serving the Asian American Pacific Islander community. In 2018, the Korean American Center received designation as the Irvine King Sejong Institute by the South Korean government and was awarded a STARTALK grant by the National Security Agency for teaching Korean.
Political career Kim has been a supporter of various social issues regarding immigrants, working families, and under-represented linguistically isolated communities. She served as Chair of the Language Access Committee for the Orange County Registrar of Voters, Board Member of the Korean American Democratic Committee, and co-founder of Asian Americans in Action.
In 2020, Kim was elected to the Orange County Democratic Party Central Committee and Southern California Chair for the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus for the California Democratic Party in March 2021. In March 2024, Kim was re-elected to serve a four-year term on the Orange County Democratic Party Central Committee for the 73rd Assembly District.
Irvine City Council On November 3, 2020 Kim was elected to the Irvine City Council as a first time candidate. Kim was sworn in on December 8, 2020 and later that month she was appointed by the City Council to serve a 1 year term as Vice Mayor and reappointed in 2022 to serve a second term. In 2024, she ran for mayor, but lost, finishing in second place with 34% of the vote.
Asian American advocacy Prior to her election to the Irvine City Council, Kim participated in the Asian American political movement in Orange County. Her election coincided with the rise of Anti-Asian hate in the United States. Kim brought awareness to "the intersection of racism and misogyny" after the Atlanta spa shootings.
Kim was the subject of a xenophobic attack that was directed to her at a city council meeting in October 2021.
Legal issues
In January 2025, Kim's eligibility to run in the Irvine City Council District 5 special election was challenged in Orange County Superior Court. Former Irvine mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang filed a petition seeking to have Kim removed from the ballot, alleging that she did not reside in District 5 and had improperly registered to vote and declared her candidacy using a District 5 address. The petition relied in part on a private investigator's report concerning Kim's residence and activities at addresses in Districts 3 and 5. Kim denied that she had violated residency requirements and maintained that she was eligible to run in District 5. Her attorneys disputed the interpretation of the evidence presented by Scolesdang's attorneys and argued that the burden of proof had not been met.
On February 7, 2025, an Orange County Superior Court judge granted the petition and ordered the Orange County Registrar of Voters to remove Kim's name from the ballot. Kim had announced her withdrawal from the special-election race before the court's ruling. Kim said her withdrawal was not an admission that she was ineligible and stated that she believed she met the residency requirements for the seat.
In May 2025, the Orange County District Attorney's Office announced that Kim had been charged with ten felonies and one misdemeanor arising from allegations concerning her residency, voter registration, voting, and election filings. Prosecutors alleged that Kim had used a District 5 address on official documents despite actually residing in District 3, voted in the November 2024 election as a District 5 resident, and subsequently filed nomination papers using District 5 addresses while seeking to run in the 2025 special election. The charges included three counts of perjury by declaration, three counts involving the filing or procurement of false documents, and charges relating to voter registration, voting by a person not entitled to vote, and fraudulent nomination papers.
According to the district attorney, Kim changed her California driver's license and voter registration to a District 5 address in May 2024. Prosecutors alleged that the address belonged to a family whom Kim had met through a Korean-language teaching class and that the family was unaware that she was using their address on official documents. Prosecutors further alleged that in January 2025 Kim paid a $400 deposit for a room at another District 5 residence, changed her driver's registration to that address, and filed revised nomination paperwork using the new address. These allegations have not been established as facts by a criminal conviction.
Kim pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. In 2025 and early 2026, her attorneys pursued mental-health pretrial diversion under California law. In March 2026, a court granted Kim admission to a mental-health diversion program. Successful completion of the program could result in dismissal of the criminal charges; the grant of diversion did not itself constitute a conviction or an adjudication that the allegations were true.
Electoral history
City of Irvine, Mayor – November 5, 2024 +General election for City of Irvine, Mayor (1 seat)CandidateVotes%✓ Larry Agran42,65238.8%Tammy Kim37,92434.5%Ron Scolesdang12,89111.7%Lee Sun6,0015.5%Felipe Delgado5,3254.8%Akshat "AB" Bhatia2,7612.5%Wing Chow2,4962.3%
Irvine City Council – November 3, 2020 +General election for Irvine City Council (3 seats)CandidateVotes%✓ Tammy Kim43,74414.8%✓ Mike Carroll*38,61513.1%✓ Larry Agran38,15612.9%Lauren Johnson-Norris37,93112.8%John Park32,52111.0%Carrie O'Malley27,4409.3%Mark Newgent15,8945.4%Diana Jiang14,8375.0%Laura Bratton10.3053.5%Dylan Green8,8133.0%Christina Dillard8,3212.8%Anshul Garg6,4202.2%Abigail Pole6,4062.2%Hai Yang Liang5,9442.0% *Incumbent
References
External links Tammy Kim profile at City of Irvine
http://koreanamericancenter.org/ (Korean American Center) https://www.aaaction.org/ (Asian Americans in Action)